Sway bar stud broke. Am I as screwed as I think?

[Scoopra]

I broke a stud for the sway bar mount while trying to install the Whiteline front sway bar. It looks like that stud is part of the front subframe and the whole thing has to be replaced to fix that. If so I'm not sure I wanna know how much that repair would be.

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[Eplejus]

If there is enough material on the front subframe, drill out the broken stud, helicoil thread insert and add a new bolt to that.

 

[Timmy_Jones]

Picture? How flush is it broken?

 

[Scoopra]

Picture? How flush is it broken?

there's maybe half a thread sticking out

 

[Teleguy11]

Uhhhhhh, picture?????

 

[Scoopra]

Uhhhhhh, picture?????

 

[Timmy_Jones]

Can you get to the top of it? I’m not having luck on part diagrams.

 

[Scoopra]

Can you get to the top of it? I’m not having luck on part diagrams.

It's a stud. It feels like it's pressed into the subframe

 

[Timmy_Jones]

Man I dunno if this helps or if you’ve seen it already. Going to have to force it out of there.

Probably not the same as the Supra, but maybe there is something there that helps.

 

[Teleguy11]

It def looks like a separate part. Dealerships are no help to see if it's a purchasable part?

 

[Eplejus]

It's a part of the subframe. Definitely not easy accessible without lowering the subframe, which is a lot of work.

But no matter what, you would have to drill out that broken bolt. I would start with that first.

 

[Eplejus]

Got bored at work, and I'm sitting alone at the office, So I took the time to do some more searching.

So by looking at the pictures below, you will see that even if you lower the subframe, the stud will still not be accessible from the other side of the subframe.
My guess is that these studs are welded into the subframe during production.

I see two ways to attack this. Well, three acctually, but last solution is $$$

1) Drill out and weld in a new stud. Make the drill hole big enough so you can weld in a standard hex bolt

2) Drill out and insert a rivet nut, like this guy did:

3) New subframe + install



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[Scoopra]

Good news. It's a stud, and hitting with a hammer knocked it out. You can access it by reaching from above so I put a bolt in there temporarily.

 

[Thraxbert]

"Temporarily" meaning, also, "forever".

 

[94boosted]

Glad to hear you can get to the back of it. The nuts that hold the sway bar bracket to these studs backed off after less than a season of autocrossing/tracking my car (with an aftermarket swaybar). So I went with new nuts and loctite and double nuts this time to be sure, but I was certainly a little nervous about these studs.

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